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longjon

Hello,

My name is Jon and myself and my partner Laura have left the crowded crazy concrete jungle and taken on a smallholding in East Devon. Our vision is to create a completely sustainable, self-sufficient, carbon-neutral farm that can support us and hopefully some others too.

We have a barn with 3-phase power and planning for light-industrial use. We _could_ rent it out to any old engineering/manufacturing/some other company and get some much-needed revenue from it or....

...we could try to set up a cooperative of like-mindeds who would build and develop some of the GVCS tools and put together a "business" of some kind which would basically benefit all the local smallholders and farmers in the area, as well as providing a test-bed for the technology and construction methods here in the UK. We already have a couple of friends interested but they are not in the area, and re-location is an issue for them. There would need to be some kind of revenue stream to make it happen. We need some locals with some time and tools to get things started... we don't even have a welder yet :)

Anyone else on these boards in East Devon?

Cheers,

Jon

Sensor

Hi Jon
I'm wondering how your plans going - (however I'm from Kent ;) )

longjon

Hello Sensor, well we're really focussing on the agricultural side at the moment, to be honest. We are still completely enthused about the GVCS, and we are close to owning a mig welder, but time and money (as always) are in short supply. Hope to be making some basic stuff in May though.

Sensor

I understand - spring is right time for agricultural side. But if you're thinking about organic farming you'll built some stuff for yourself (not listed on gvcs yet). From my own experience I know that organic farming is much more difficult that industrial one.

longjon

Yes indeed, much more difficult in terms of dealing with pests and disease, although it's all about prevention of course. Plus certification fees are yet another expense. But it will be our USP - not too much certified organic round here.

What is your experience, if you don't mind me asking?

The good news is we now have a mig-welder and and an arc-brazing torch, plus masks and all extra bits and pieces - all for £100 - woo hoo! And a mate who did the welding for Mutoid Waste Co. hopefully coming to give us lessons soon...

First job is constructing metal roost perches which will be suspended from our home-made mobile chicken houses. Still on the drawing board at mo, but building starts in late April... also some BBQs out of oil-barrels!

Sensor

My experience? ;) - I used to be an organic farmer some time ago ;) - I wasn't farm boy - so, take a while to have some experience. Local people just know what and where they can plant and how to take care bout it. If you didn't farmed yet, you will need some time to master it.

Alex

Hello there,

I'm a local guy who lives in east/mid Devon (Willand). Ill be finishing college soon (July time) and so have some free time. I dont know much - if anything - about farming, but in September I am going to University to study Mechanical Engineering. I love the idea of this project so could be some helpful hands on occasion?

longjon

Hi Alex, good to hear from you. Yes helping hands always required! I'll PM you with my number and when you fancy a stay in sunny East Devon you can give me call.

dinfante29

Hi,

I am an electronics engineer living in Birmingham UK for the next two years. I and one of my students built electronic control for a greenhouse several years ago. If you are gonna work on greenhouses I might help you.

All the best

longjon

Hi Dinfante, definitely interested in this for the future, will keep you in mind, cheers!

UtopianPragmatist

hi, i'm from essex but i visit your way a fair bit, i'd be interested to hear more about what you're doing, maybe you could set up a blog / website of some description? i'd love to help with that if you want, maybe we could try and get a bit of community spirit going and get some wisdom of the crowd / crowd funding sort of stuff started?

longjon

Hi UP, I am on the case with the blog / website, loads of content and pictures to upload, but not much time! Yes we are looking at funding options, it's a tricky situation as we are in the process of proving a viable income from the land so we can get planning for a permanent house. Once that is done, then we may be able to diversify into other areas and go for funding for that, but it does mean holding off developing some of our ideas for the site so as not to jeopardise planning for the eco-house. Planning laws have recently changed, but it will take a year or two before we know how it all shakes down.

In the meantime we are just buckling down to building our first chicken house for 100 birds, then we can attend to finishing the workshop and start getting into metalworking a bit more. There is loads to do on the fishery and clearing the land at the moment though. As well as holding down an office job!

UtopianPragmatist

nice yeah, it's important to get your base set first then build from there. Hopefully you'll be able to get through the red-tape and start innovating with the minimum of delay and drama :)

planettrailheader

I love the UK. Hopefully you can become a factor-e farm that would be visitable by me some day. Otherwise and meanwhile, wanna be a local steward for the interconnection of the PlanetTrailHeader? (We're making it up as we go along) see my post in introductions...

cheers!

Howdy, Stranger!

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